It is halftime on Saturday for General Conference. While I watch these great men from afar, it made me think of a few close up experiences I have had.<\/p>\n
When I was in the MTC my companion was asked to pray at a fireside. Thomas S. Monson and Joseph B. Wirthlin spoke there. I sat just behind President Monson. When Elder Wirthlin sat down, President Monson smiling said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, is It my turn now?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then got up and spoke to us, the future missionaries. I remember his mentioning he never eats pizza and that his mother would tell her kids never to eat the tip of the ice cream cone, as there might be a fly in it. (He said other things as well, which were very poignant to me as the only member in my family.) I shook his hand. <\/span>I have little hands, and it felt as though his soft cool hands swallowed mine.<\/p>\n Elder Scott and President Eyring came to my mission and had a meeting with Zone Leaders only. They had come to ask us about the Philippines and what needed to be worked on. I mentioned the practice had become to baptize separated people who could not get divorced, but to tell them they could not go to the Temple. (This had always bothered me). Elder Scott said we should never baptize anyone without putting them on the path to the Temple. At the End of the meeting the apostles spoke to us about our mission. President Eyring said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have looked each of you in the eyes. I know which of you are sufficiently humble missionaries\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then he looked me in the eyes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And which are not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I was convicted in my sin of ethnocentricity, my bias toward the very people I was called to teach and be companions with. For the rest of my mission I did everything I could to humble myself and think of those I taught and served as my equals, and not as objects. At the end of that meeting, when President Eyring was leaving, he looked at me again, and waved, and his eyes told me of his love. As a matter of Legend in our mission, that night he went to Family Home Evening with a family in the mission, and sang \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I left my heart in San Francisco\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>as the FHE activity was Karaoke.<\/p>\n While my experiences are limited, they have been life changing to me.<\/p>\n What Personal Experiences have you had with Apostles?<\/p>\n